Art of the Angels
29 artworks found
Angels are messengers, and painting them poses a specific problem: how to render a being with no body in a medium that can only show bodies. The solutions are more varied, and stranger, than the modern sentimental version suggests.
Annunciation by Petrus Christus - Framed Canvas
By: Petrus Christus
Angel Holding the Body of Christ by Nikolaos Kallergis - Framed Canvas
By: Nikolaos Kallergis
Annunciation by Francisco Rizi - Framed Canvas
By: Francisco Rizi
Angel Musicians by Hans Memling - Framed Canvas
By: Hans Memling
Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds by Govert Flinck - Framed Canvas
By: Govert Flinck
Annunciation by Nicolas Poussin - Framed Canvas
By: Nicolas Poussin
The Annunciation by Michel Dorigny - Framed Canvas
By: Michel Dorigny
Elijah fed by Ravens by Guercino - Framed Canvas
By: Guercino
Madonna and Child with St Justus of Volterra and St Margaret of Antioch by Bastiano Mainardi - Framed Canvas
By: Bastiano Mainardi
Madonna with the Child and Two Angels by Filippo Lippi - Framed Canvas
By: Filippo Lippi
Liberation of Saint Peter by Battistello Caracciolo - Framed Canvas
By: Battistello Caracciolo
Maestà by Duccio di Buoninsegna - Framed Canvas
By: Duccio di Buoninsegna
St. Michael the Archangel by Pietro Perugino - Framed Canvas
By: Pietro Perugino
St. Michael the Archangel by Unknown - Framed Canvas
By: Unknown
St. Bonaventure Receiving the Host from the Hands of an Angel by Francisco de Herrera - Framed Canvas
By: Francisco de Herrera
The Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci - Framed Canvas
By: Leonardo da Vinci
The Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner - Framed Canvas
By: Henry Ossawa Tanner
The Annunciation by Matthias Stom - Framed Canvas
By: Matthias Stom
Song of the Angels by William-Adolphe Bouguereau - Framed Canvas
By: William-Adolphe Bouguereau
The Annunciation by Fra Angelico - Framed Canvas
By: Fra Angelico
The Annunciation by Luca Giordano - Framed Canvas
By: Luca Giordano
Guardian Angel by Bernhard Plockhorst - Matte Canvas
By: Bernhard Plockhorst
The Annunciation Under the Arch with Lilies by Maurice Denis - Matte Canvas
By: Maurice Denis
The Dead Christ with Angels by Édouard Manet - Matte Canvas
By: Édouard Manet
The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder - Framed Canvas
By: Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Virgin and Child Enthroned among Angels and Saints by Benozzo Gozzoli - Framed Canvas
By: Benozzo Gozzoli
Virgin and Child with Angels and Saints by Felice Torelli - Matte Canvas
By: Felice Torelli
Virgin and Child with Two Angels by Cimabue - Framed Canvas
By: Cimabue
The Dead Christ Supported by Mourning Angels by Liberale da Verona - Framed Canvas
By: Liberale da Verona
How angels came to be painted
The wings are a borrowing. Early Christian art had no established way to show an angel and took the winged victory figure from Roman art wholesale, which is why the earliest Christian angels look like Nike. They were sexless and severe for centuries before they became beautiful; the soft, childlike angel is a late development, largely Renaissance and after.
The hierarchy was taken seriously, and it shows. Seraphim are red and six-winged; cherubim are blue; the ranks below them descend toward the recognisably human. Michael is armoured and armed, usually standing on the dragon, and is the one angel routinely painted as a soldier. Gabriel appears almost exclusively in Annunciations. Raphael travels, and is shown walking with Tobias and a fish.
The putti are a different thing entirely and often confused with angels. Those wingless or small-winged infants crowding the lower edges of Baroque altarpieces come from classical art, not scripture, and they entered religious painting through the Renaissance revival of antiquity. They are decorative in origin, which is precisely why the Counter-Reformation kept arguing about them.